Current workplace demands on employees have reached the point where Kiwi companies are 'fracking human resources, according to one researcher.
Dr Denise Quinlan has undertaken research and surveys to better understand our workplaces and the pressures put on employees.
The findings reveal our workloads are not sustainable, with up to 50 percent of New Zealand workers at risk of severe burnout.
Quinlan says the advent of smartphones, high-speed internet and remote work accelerated the issues with the modern workplace further.
"We've all seen the upsides, it's all been amazing - and at first, it was really cool. You could do your phone calls, your emails at home! But now, what it means is that we're not present where we are."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks atb.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Current workplace demands on employees have reached the point where
we're basically fracking human resources. That's the belief of well
being researcher doctor Denise Quinland. Across the last eighteen months
or so, Denise has undertaken research and surveys to better
understand our workplaces and the pressures put on employees. The
findings show our workloads are not sustainable, with up to
(00:35):
fifty percent of New Zealand workers at risk of severe burnout.
Denis has now released a report into this and a
new podcast, both called Making Work Better and Doctor Denise
Quinlan joins me, now, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good morning, love you to be with you, Thank you
so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tell me when did the way we are working become problematic?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Francisca, It's happened gradually over the past forty years, and
it really accelerated with the advent of smartphones, high speed internet,
and then those it accelerated it even further.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So what's happened to our workplaces then? And how's that
impacting us?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well? I really think of it as two things have
combined to drive most of this, and one is the
kind of the increasing pace and demands of work, and
the other is tech. So if we think about pace
and demand, over literally the last four years, we've restructured right, size, down, size, cutback,
and all of this has been this kind of relentless
(01:37):
drive for efficiency, and most of us come from getting
workers to do more, faster with less. And we've also
got more insecurity around our work, so that's a big driver.
And then the other one are smartphones, laptops and high
speed internet net that mean we can work anywhere, anytime,
and we're also look last week, last week I heard
(02:00):
about a supervisor telling a woman going in to have
a baby, look, if the contractions stopped, you could log
on for a while and that would be useful, you know.
But it's we've all got stories.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You know, because the tea. It's interesting, isn't it, Because
that hasn't happened on the night, Like, you know, the
minute we got email, somebody should have gone, oh, hang
on a minute, just think about this.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, we were frogs in hot water. We've all seen
the upside. It's all been amazing, and at first it
was really cool that you could do your you could
do your phone, call, your email at home. But now
what it means is we're not present where we are.
And you know, I'm hearing all these stories of parents
(02:48):
missing kids awards, working through their kids' birthday parties, their performances,
you know, And and so what felt like freedom at
the start, now isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You've done a lot of research into this area, surveying
the worker is trying to sum up for us a
little bit what you have found.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So what I found in a small survey was what
I was seeing in the workplace was burnout and lack
of hope. And I thought, let's go and find, first
of all, find what's happening, and then see is anyone
doing this well? Is anyone making progress? So that's really
what I've been at. In these surveys. We found over
(03:30):
eighty percent of people saying they felt exhausted and ineffective
to keep burnout factors, and about seventy percent of people
found work overwhelming or unsustainable. Sometimes I always, you know.
And this was laid out late twenty three and by
June twenty four, in a much bigger survey, Jared Harf
(03:50):
and Massy found on average, one in two New Zealanders
were at risk of severe burnout. If you were in
clerical work, that was up to eighty nine percent.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So, Denise, is this an employee issue to fix or
an employer should be finding this so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Well? What I would say is this will take all
of us at home and at work. You know, Initially,
workplace strategies tended to focus on individual well being and
we often talk about that as the three f's of
fruit bowls, flu jabs, and fitness. But the truth is
you can spend all night and all weekends looking after
your well being. But if you come to a workplace
(04:30):
with an unrealistic workload, no clarity around role boundaries, priorities,
and no support, that's not enough. You know, we've got
to address the workplace drivers will burnout, But we also
need to look at how we're living at home, and
that's kind of tech and consumerism I think.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So is it a way forward here or is it
a bit of a two hard basket.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Look. I think some of us have felt like deer
in the headlights and we've just kind of got Oh,
I can't think of a way through, And that's why
I went and found these companies who are finding a
way through. So I think on the personal inside, a
lot of people are making change. You know, the people
who've gone back to flip phones, who are committed to
recycling and not buying fast fashion, choosing time over things.
(05:17):
Those people are all doing what they can in their
own lives. But there are also workplaces that are making change.
And these are the ones I think of who've gone
it is time to stop cracking human resources. We've got
to make work humanly sustainable. And there are organizations doing
that and succeeding in business. And how are they?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
How are they doing that and putting away?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So if there are five key things I found, so
let me tell you those and then I'll give you
an example, a really simple example that we can all apply.
So the five common things in these organizations that I
would go and work for in the morning where listening
to understand, listening to their workers to understand not what's
(06:01):
not working, and then co designing solutions. The second was
a culture of care and support. These are places that
have There's just a whole range of things we do.
We could talk all day about, you know, scaffets all day, breakfast,
health insurance, Kiwi banks and compassionate LEAs that's got no
(06:22):
time limit. That applies to diverse family structures. And then
there's finding new ways of working and that's the one
I want to come back to. But the fourth one
was fostering a sense of purpose and belonging. It was
realizing people don't come to work for a paycheck. They
need a sense of purpose and they also need to
feel they belong somewhere. And the last one is leadership.
(06:44):
And that's leadership that's about empowerment, connection and collaboration. Rather
than being the smartest boss in the room who knows
all the answers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I really want to hear your real life experience things
I've got about thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Is that all right? Okay? The big one that I
would say to people that I've seen huge be hugely powerful,
is asking the question, what's the low value you work?
You do that really grinds your peers and reduces low
satisfaction and adds no value to customers. How can we
cut that out?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That easy? Denise, really nice to talk to you. Thank
you so much. Making work better. Denise has released a
new podcast and a report, and that is what.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It is called for. More from the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to news talks it Be from
nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks atb.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Current workplace demands on employees have reached the point where
we're basically fracking human resources. That's the belief of well
being researcher doctor Denise Quinland. Across the last eighteen months
or so, Denise has undertaken research and surveys to better
understand our workplaces and the pressures put on employees. The
findings show our workloads are not sustainable, with up to
(00:35):
fifty percent of New Zealand workers at risk of severe burnout.
Denis has now released a report into this and a
new podcast, both called Making Work Better and Doctor Denise
Quinlan joins me, now, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good morning, love you to be with you, Thank you
so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tell me when did the way we are working become problematic?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Francisca, It's happened gradually over the past forty years, and
it really accelerated with the advent of smartphones, high speed internet,
and then those it accelerated it even further.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So what's happened to our workplaces then? And how's that
impacting us?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well? I really think of it as two things have
combined to drive most of this, and one is the
kind of the increasing pace and demands of work, and
the other is tech. So if we think about pace
and demand, over literally the last four years, we've restructured right, size, down, size, cutback,
and all of this has been this kind of relentless
(01:37):
drive for efficiency, and most of us come from getting
workers to do more, faster with less. And we've also
got more insecurity around our work, so that's a big driver.
And then the other one are smartphones, laptops and high
speed internet net that mean we can work anywhere, anytime,
and we're also look last week, last week I heard
(02:00):
about a supervisor telling a woman going in to have
a baby, look, if the contractions stopped, you could log
on for a while and that would be useful, you know.
But it's we've all got stories.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You know, because the tea. It's interesting, isn't it, Because
that hasn't happened on the night, Like, you know, the
minute we got email, somebody should have gone, oh, hang
on a minute, just think about this.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, we were frogs in hot water. We've all seen
the upside. It's all been amazing, and at first it
was really cool that you could do your you could
do your phone, call, your email at home. But now
what it means is we're not present where we are.
And you know, I'm hearing all these stories of parents
(02:48):
missing kids awards, working through their kids' birthday parties, their performances,
you know, And and so what felt like freedom at
the start, now isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
You've done a lot of research into this area, surveying
the worker is trying to sum up for us a
little bit what you have found.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So what I found in a small survey was what
I was seeing in the workplace was burnout and lack
of hope. And I thought, let's go and find, first
of all, find what's happening, and then see is anyone
doing this well? Is anyone making progress? So that's really
what I've been at. In these surveys. We found over
(03:30):
eighty percent of people saying they felt exhausted and ineffective
to keep burnout factors, and about seventy percent of people
found work overwhelming or unsustainable. Sometimes I always, you know.
And this was laid out late twenty three and by
June twenty four, in a much bigger survey, Jared Harf
(03:50):
and Massy found on average, one in two New Zealanders
were at risk of severe burnout. If you were in
clerical work, that was up to eighty nine percent.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So, Denise, is this an employee issue to fix or
an employer should be finding this so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Well? What I would say is this will take all
of us at home and at work. You know, Initially,
workplace strategies tended to focus on individual well being and
we often talk about that as the three f's of
fruit bowls, flu jabs, and fitness. But the truth is
you can spend all night and all weekends looking after
your well being. But if you come to a workplace
(04:30):
with an unrealistic workload, no clarity around role boundaries, priorities,
and no support, that's not enough. You know, we've got
to address the workplace drivers will burnout, But we also
need to look at how we're living at home, and
that's kind of tech and consumerism I think.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So is it a way forward here or is it
a bit of a two hard basket.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Look. I think some of us have felt like deer
in the headlights and we've just kind of got Oh,
I can't think of a way through, And that's why
I went and found these companies who are finding a
way through. So I think on the personal inside, a
lot of people are making change. You know, the people
who've gone back to flip phones, who are committed to
recycling and not buying fast fashion, choosing time over things.
(05:17):
Those people are all doing what they can in their
own lives. But there are also workplaces that are making change.
And these are the ones I think of who've gone
it is time to stop cracking human resources. We've got
to make work humanly sustainable. And there are organizations doing
that and succeeding in business. And how are they?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
How are they doing that and putting away?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So if there are five key things I found, so
let me tell you those and then I'll give you
an example, a really simple example that we can all apply.
So the five common things in these organizations that I
would go and work for in the morning where listening
to understand, listening to their workers to understand not what's
(06:01):
not working, and then co designing solutions. The second was
a culture of care and support. These are places that
have There's just a whole range of things we do.
We could talk all day about, you know, scaffets all day, breakfast,
health insurance, Kiwi banks and compassionate LEAs that's got no
(06:22):
time limit. That applies to diverse family structures. And then
there's finding new ways of working and that's the one
I want to come back to. But the fourth one
was fostering a sense of purpose and belonging. It was
realizing people don't come to work for a paycheck. They
need a sense of purpose and they also need to
feel they belong somewhere. And the last one is leadership.
(06:44):
And that's leadership that's about empowerment, connection and collaboration. Rather
than being the smartest boss in the room who knows
all the answers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I really want to hear your real life experience things
I've got about thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Is that all right? Okay? The big one that I
would say to people that I've seen huge be hugely powerful,
is asking the question, what's the low value you work?
You do that really grinds your peers and reduces low
satisfaction and adds no value to customers. How can we
cut that out?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That easy? Denise, really nice to talk to you. Thank
you so much. Making work better. Denise has released a
new podcast and a report, and that is what.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It is called for. More from the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to news talks it Be from
nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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